The Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency is conducting additional monitoring Monday and Tuesday in the Winton Terrace and Spring Grove Village neighborhoods. The move follows complaints from community members and a subsequent report in the media.
"We're going to do some portable air monitoring in the community in the next couple of days just to make sure we're not seeing any levels of concern," says Brad Miller, interim director of the Department of Environmental Services.
After that, the agency is planning some additional monitoring.
"We'll also take some 24-hour samples ... that's how the air toxics monitor normally operates for a 24-hour period of time. It runs once every 12 days, so we'll do some random 24-hour samples out in the community, probably over the next month."
Miller says the Ohio EPA monitored air quality in those neighborhoods from 1991 to 2012. Based on data showing low levels of air toxins, Ohio EPA and the U.S. EPA concluded no further monitoring was needed.
Some random monitoring continues, and Miller says six violations have been issued.
As the Cincinnati Enquirer reported last week, those communities had the highest levels of toxic air emissions in the city in 2016. People living in Winton Terrace told the newspaper they have difficulty breathing and speculate industrial factories belonging to P&G, Marathon, BASF, Sun Chemical and Emery are the cause.
Hamilton County commissioners are slated to hear the results of Monday and Tuesday's preliminary air monitoring Wednesday.
